Archives of “Coronavirus” tag

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China health official says China has officially launched emergency use of COVID19 vaccines

  
  Analysis
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Coronavirus weekend news – Chinese media, Global Times, reports via Twitter that an official at the country’s National Health Commission:

  • says China has officially launched emergency use of a vaccine
  • the vaccine has been in clinical trial since July 22
GT also report on a more than 20,000 person phase III clinical trial in the UAE of Sinopharm’s COVID19 vaccine
  • has shown a high level of safety
  • efficacy is currently under observation
Coronavirus weekend news - Chinese media, Global Times, reports via Twitter that an official at the country's National Health Commission:
Both of the GT items are tweets only, not accompanied by further articles for more information.
There is one more that is accompanied by an article – saying that China’s first recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine made from insect cells has been approved for clinical trials by the National Medical Products Administration.
  • vaccine is being developed by the State Key Laboratory of Biological Therapy of Sichuan University affiliated West China Hospital
  • vaccine uses insect cells to multiply in the culture medium and introduces the gene of COVID-19 into insect cells, which means the cell can be used as a factory to produce high-quality recombinant vaccine proteins and purify them for refinement.
  • vaccine was tested on monkeys and other animals, and was found to have a good protective effect against COVID-19 infection, with no obvious side effects
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Given the history of how markets view vaccine news (generally positively) this threefer from the GT might be a boost for sentiment on Monday. There is still plenty of time left over the weekend for less than favourable stories to develop, stay tuned.

‘Game changer’ COVID-19 test approved by the US FDA over the weekend

  
  Analysis
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The US FDA authorised the emergency use of a new saliva based laboratory diagnostic test for coronavirus.

 A key difference is the speed of the test, its being described as a ‘game changer’.
The sped allows more people to access rapid easily.
Stephen Hahn, the Food and Drugs Administration Commissioner:
  • “Providing this type of flexibility for processing saliva samples to test for COVID-19 infection is groundbreaking in terms of efficiency and avoiding shortages of crucial test components like reagents”
Its called SalivaDirect
  • has been tested amongst US National Basketball Association (NBA) players and staff
  • simpler, less expensive, less invasive than nasopharyngeal (NP) swabbing
  • yields similar outcomes as NP swabbing
Current testing:
The US FDA authorised the emergency use of a new saliva based laboratory diagnostic test for coronavirus.
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ps. For clarity, this is a test for the infection, not a treatment. That is clear above, but wanted to restate it.

Russia to publish coronavirus vaccine trials data in the coming days – local media

  
  Analysis
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TASS reports on the matter, citing the Russian health minister

There is plenty of skepticism surrounding Russia’s coronavirus “vaccine”, as there isn’t any solid evidence presented as of yet besides backing from the government and Putin.
Reports that the country’s leading respiratory doctor has quit the health ministry’s ethics council because of the vaccine endorsement also raises more questions.
But considering how much reputation and political risk is at stake, you can bet that these clinical trials data will be supportive of what Putin has touted so far.
As for the truth of the situation, it is debatable but I’m not buying into the story thus far. But markets may run on anything these days, so that is something we have to accept.

India reports record daily new coronavirus cases of 66,999 in latest update today

  
  Analysis
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That brings the total confirmed cases in the country to nearly 2.4 million

India is among the countries that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic as the struggle to balance between the health crisis and the economic fallout is particularly stark.

As for the health crisis, the bright side is that over 1.6 million of those infected has recovered from the disease. However, the spread is still outpacing the number of recoveries:
India
At the start of July, India reported ~220,000 active cases in the country. That figure is now ~643,000. The only positive – if you really want to look at it that way – is that the mortality sits at just ~1.9%. That is better than the ~3.2% seen in Brazil and the US.
In the bigger picture, as long as the health crisis worsens in India, it will have an impact on the global economic situation in general. Before the pandemic, there have been talks that India’s share of global growth might rival that of US, China in the next decade.
They were already among the top five – some would argue top three – contributors of global growth over the past few years, so any major setback to India will also be a setback for the global economy in that sense.

Russia says first batch of coronavirus vaccine expected within two weeks

  
  Analysis
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The vaccine clinical test results will also be published in that time frame

This according to Russian health minister, Mikhail Murashko. On the headline, I reckon he is referring to mass production. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out over the coming months and how it will impact other countries to produce “breakthroughs”.

 

Meanwhile, the country itself just reported another 5,102 new virus cases and that sees the total confirmed cases exceeding 900,000 (~180,000 active cases). Another 129 deaths were also reported, bringing the tally on that front to 15,260 persons.

Russia president Putin says have approved first Russian-produced coronavirus vaccine

  
  Analysis
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Putin says that his daughter has been vaccinated from the coronavirus

Putin
  • Says that Russian health ministry has approved coronavirus vaccine developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute
  • Says hopes Russia will start mass production of coronavirus vaccine
Take what you will and believe what you want from the headlines above, but this may lay the groundwork for other countries to start prepping their own “breakthroughs” sooner rather than later. As with everything related to the pandemic thus far, all it takes is for one country to set a precedent and the others will take that as an opportunity to follow.

Major indices close higher. The NASDAQ closes at a new record high again

  
Analysis, US Market
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Late day rally takes the indices to new session highs

the major indices rallied into the close and as a result are closing near/at their highs for the day. The Dow industrial average led the way today with a 0.62% gain. The S&P index and NASDAQ index each closed up around 0.35%.

  • The NASDAQ closed at yet another new record high and have been up for 5 consecutive days. For the year the NASDAQ is up 21.8%
  • The S&P closes lesson 3% from the all-time high
  • The S&P index and Dow industrial average have now been up for 3 consecutive days
The final numbers are showing:
  • S&P index rose 11.9 points or 0.36% at 3306.51. The close was just off the session highs at 3306.84. The low reached 3286.37
  • NASDAQ index rose 38.37 points or 0.35% at 10941.16. The high price reached 10941.90. The low extended to 10852.89
  • Dow industrial average rose 164.07 points or 0.62% at 26828.42. It’s high price reached 26832.72. The low price extended to 26597.82
Although there is no coronavirus deal, just before the close Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he could support an extension of the US$600 unemployment benefit it Trump supports it.
After the close Disney reported adjusted earnings-per-share of $0.08 vs. expectations of $-0.64. The revenues however came in light at $11.78 billion vs. expectations of $12.39 billion. Disney plus subscribers told 57.5 million vs. expectations of 59.4 million. Disney shares initially move lower but are now trading up 2.46% $120.18.

Pelosi confirms US coronavirus economic rescue package talks to continue Tuesday

  
  Analysis
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  • U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

  • Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
  • White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
will meet again on Tuesday for further talks on the next around of coronavirus economic aid.
Pelosi said the talks Monday had been productive

US strikes $2.1 billion coronavirus vaccine deal with Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline

  
  Analysis
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Sanofi, GSK selected for Operation Warp Speed

The deal will see the firms provide the US government with 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, with the US to provide up to $2.1 billion for development, clinical trials, manufacturing and the delivery of the initial batch of doses.

The US will also have a further option for a supply of additional 500 million doses of the vaccine in the longer-term. GSK adds that if study data are postive, the companies can request US regulatory approval some time in 1H 2021.
To put a bit of a timeline on things, phase 1/2 of the study is expected to start in September with Phase 3 set to be conducted by the end of the year.
That’s another win for both firms after having struck a deal with the UK government earlier in the week here.
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